The Asklepia Foundation
“Journey to the Healing Heart of Your Dreams”
AS ABOVE; SO BELOW
The Mysteries of Quantum Metaphysics
by Richard and Iona Miller, c2001
O.A.K.; Asklepia Foundation
Abstract: Our place in cosmic history depends on the delicate
interplay between the very big and the very small. Chaos and complexity
theory show us that patterns tend to reiterate and persist (like fractals)
at all levels of observation: “As Above; So Below.” There are a few
competing theories for describing the subquantal nature of Reality in both
quantum cosmology and quantum physics. The field patterns of the
finest organization of energy and matter also affect the evolution of the
cosmos. The various models include a non-zero cosmological constant,
quintessence, tracker fields, Bohm’s implicate order, and the varying-speed-of-light
(VSL) theory.
Similar mechanisms also describe the mind/matter interface--the holistic
organism--the holographic mindbody. They describe how infinite pure
potential becomes actualized as human consciousness--how the superposed
quantum potentials collapse into a single tangible wavefunction--how mind
becomes matter. Here again, there is competition for the process
which describes the source or virtual groundstate of our consciousness.
Can the constant fluctuation of quantum foam perturb the orbits of electrons
in our neurons and bootstrap macro-changes in consciousness states?
Strictly statistical and mechanical views of consciousness have failed
to account for the richness of inner and outer human experience.
How are waves of possibility transduced into classical or macrocosmic
forms? The models presented include Bohm's implicate and explicate
order, Stapp’s cations, Walker’s synaptic tunneling, Penrose’s quantum
gravity, Marshall’s Bose-Einstein condensate, and Goertzel’s Ons algebra,
Hammeroff’s microtubules, Edelman's Dynamic Core hypothesis, Chalmers universal
consciousness.
Introduction
A revolution occurred during the 20th century in our understanding of the
nature of the physical universe. This change is extremely important
to religion, for it eliminates a basic conflict between science and religious
belief.
Prior to this change, our scientific beliefs were based on an approach
that was initiated in the 17th century: "We live in a mechanical
universe, and we are simply complex machines." This scientific notion
that man was purely a mechanical system contradicts what is probably the
core of religious belief, namely the idea that mind-like or spirit-like
factors can make a difference in human behavior.
The religious outlook assumes that a human being, acting on the basis of
conscious choices, is NOT equivalent to a mechanical system, whose every
action is completely determined by direct interaction between tiny
neighboring bits of matter. 20th century science, however, has shown
that the earlier mechanical concept of reality is incompatible with empirical
facts.
To cope with this failure of earlier ideas, physicist made a breakthrough
change. Physical theory was converted from a theory about the physical
world itself into a theory of WHAT ONE COULD KNOW about the physical world.
Human experience was introduced into the theory and made fundamental.
This was to be later known as the Copenhagen interpretation. It had
drawbacks. For example, while it brought human knowledge into physical
theory, it also renounced the possibility of understanding the underlying
physical reality. It set our limits of understanding.
It was the eminent mathematician John von Neumann and Nobel laureate Eugene
Wigner who reincorporated physical reality. They did this by casting
the new physics into a theory of the interaction between our conscious
thoughts and our physical brains. This was known as von Neumann-Wigner
formation of quantum theory, and rationally incorporated conscious thoughts
into the basic dynamics.
Physics was not yet ready to tackle the problem of interaction between
our thoughts and our brain. It was some time before this was scientifically
feasible to explore. Now however, there is a huge and rapidly growing
field of experimental data on this question of the connection between minds
and brains.
This shift in science is of important significance to religion. It
removes the basic contradiction between the older scientific claim that
human beings are essentially mechanical robots, while religion maintains
than man is not ruled by matter alone. The new physics now dynamically
entangles our conscious thoughts with the quantum representation of the
physical world.
There is a hierarchy of observational levels: subquantal, quantal, photonic,
atomic, EM, cehimcal, cellular, organis, organisms, consciousness, families,
communities, world, solar systems, galaxies, Universe.
There is a plethora of competing theories arising from many disciplines
to account for the psychophysical expressions of consciousness in function
and structure: physics, mathematics, neuroscience, neurotheology,
neuropsychology, consciousness studies, cognitive sciences, complexity
theorists. The only comprehensive theory must be one that is based
in nondualism, and accounts for such self-organizing mindbody manifestations
as spontaneous healing or self-recovery, or even the placebo effect.
The mind-matter connection is intimately linked to any speculations we
can make about alleged mind-over-matter phenomena. We are transducers of
consciousness. In fact all psi phenomena, including such nonlocality
demonstrations as the “simple connections” of telepathy, ESP, or synchronicity
in general are related to this problem of an underlying or connecting field
through which information exchange is instantaneous and unimpeded.
The leading contender for such a field, vacuum fluctuation or quantum foam,
was proposed by David Bohm. Turbulent motion in this highly excited,
subquantal field leads to the emergence from virtuality into actuality
of quantum entities which just as quickly dissolve back into the subquantal
sea. This same ocean of virtual or metaphysical “stuff” has the property
of containing, storing, and transmitting information about the nature of
matter and even thought.
The observables of nonlocality and psi cry out for some form of interconnection
between phenomenon separated in space and/or time. The concept most
generally used in physics to account for spatial and temporal interconnection
is that of a field. Fields themselves cannot be observed, and so
can be considered meta- or beyond physical. Yet the influences propagating
through them are observable, eventually. Mind, memory, and consciousness
may be such phenomena.
Is there one massive holographic field that actually exists in nature in
the sense of Bohm’s holomovement? And if so, how does this relate
to our consciousness and our relationship to the cosmos? And what
is the mechanism by which this universal force interfaces within our organism?
When we recognize that we really are that, that nature lies within our
deepest structure and function, we come to understand that we are not separate
from the whole of creation. We recognize that “I AM THAT I AM.”
Or more properly, "I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE." Everything
including ourselves, is deeply connected in one holy movement, in qabalistic
terms, from Kether to Malkuth.
The quantum vacuum, the energy-field that characterizes the ground state
of the universe, possibly furnishes the indicated ‘fifth field,’ the hidden
variables of chaotic yet deterministic micromotion that bootstraps all
energy/matter into existence. This plenum could transmit as-yet-unknown
effects. This quantum foam, which Wheeler called superspace, consists
of a pure massless charge-flux.
We argue, along with Laszlo that, “The conclusion to be derived from
the considerations presented here is that the four-dimensional manifold
Einstein described as spacetime is likely to be more than a geometrical
abstraction. As the energetically superdense quantum vacuum, it may
be a physically real field, limiting the velocity of light and other matter-particles
and transmitting a variety of effects, including, but not limited to, gravitation
and electromangetism. We may well ask, then, whether the field would
also transmit the kind of effects associated with psi.”
Waves of this purely informational (scalar) force could create a potential
gradient where quantal motion triggers scalar waves in the vacuum, and
these propagate by alternately compressing and rarefying its virtual-particle
gas. Scalars are neither ‘light’ nor ‘matter’, but longitudinally
propagating fluctuations below the energy-threshold of particle pair-creation.This
produces a self-generating cosmological feedback cycle which translates
into interference patterns created by the motion of charged particles modifying
the local topology of the vacuum. The modified vacuum field modifies
in turn the motion of the particles, (Laszlo, 1993, 1994).
Fourier show that any three-dimensional pattern can be analyzed into a
set of regular, periodic oscillations that differ only in frequency, amplitude,
and phase. Specific waveforms can be exact representations of spatiotemporal
objects--thus we have a “Holographic Universe.”
Analysis shows that the signals transmitted through the vacuum field are
precisely of the psi variety, because information in that field is holographic,
and because the propagation of the holographic interference patterns is
quasi-instantaneous. Therefore, this virttual field might provide
a metaphysical foundation for a broad range of psi phenomena and psychophysical
interaction, including self-organization and healing.
The quantum vaccum is a highly anomlous universal energy realm of pure
potential. It is both the source and destination of all matter in
the universe, and thus of any form of consciousness which may emerge through
its autopoeitic process. The human brain, with its pronounced and
constant state of chaos, could receive and amplify such signals, expressed
both consciously and unconsciously in our biophsyical self and our ephemeral
thoughts and intuitions which precipitate behavior.
The von Neumann-Wigner formulation
The von-Neumann-Wigner formulation provides the basic logical principles
that govern the interaction between thoughts and the brain. It provides
prima facie evidence that human thoughts are linked to nature by nonlocal
connections. What a person chooses to do in one region seems immediately
to effect what is true elsewhere in the universe.
This nonlocal aspect can be understood by conceiving the universe to be
not a collection of tiny bits of matter, but rather a growing compendium
of "bits of information." This profound shift about the nature of
reality has not yet sunk in culturally. It will happen by the promotion
of understanding of the radical shifts wrought by quantum theory.
Most quantum physicists are interested more in applications of quantum
theory than in its deep implications. Most now agree that a conception
of physical reality is informational in character, not material.
Our conscious thoughts ought eventually to be understood within science
and that when properly understood, our thoughts will be seen to DO something;
they will be efficacious.
From what most quantum physicists now understand, certain ontological claims
can now be made.
1. The "physical world," as understood in quantum theory, is a store of
information, and this information is NOT imbedded in hordes of tiny particles
(as they were in classical theory). The information is stored in
a mathematically described structure that specifies propensities for certain
events to occur. These events (paradigms) include the acquision of
information by human agents.
2. Conscious events should eventually be understood in science, and these
events should be efficacious. They should have a real effect on our actions.
The von Neumann-Wigner formulation of quantum theory achieves these ends.
It has never been seriously broached in science, not because it was considered
unimportant, but because it was deemed too difficult. Pertinent data
seemed insufficient and restrictive. This has changed because science
has changed.
Thoughts are not "nothing." They are simultaneously embodied in quantal
processes, neural circuits, electrical (EM) charge, chemical transmissions,
and genetic expression. How can a thought, for example, stimulate
or depress the immune system. Research shows such thoughts don't
need to arise in the brain, but may originate in the whole psychophysical
self, such as cytokines and neurotransmitter release in far-flung parts
of the body. Such processes have a "beginning, middle, and end" which
at some point we may be able to quantify, perhaps through research on artificial
intelligence.
Henry Stapp's Cation Theory of Mind/Matter and QM
[He worked in Munich with Werner Heisenberg, and later in Austin with John
Wheeler on the problem of interpretation of quantum theory. He is
the author of "The Copenhagen Interpretation."]